Knitting, Biking and Some Sober Second Thoughts

Subway Token Holder

I notice a lot of people keep subway tokens in their wallets where they get mixed in with their other change and they’re never quite sure how many they have. You can buy a token holder of course, but I discovered a while ago that tokens (in Toronto; can’t make any guarantees about other cities) fit very nicely in an empty chapstick case. My old one was starting to get cracked along the top

Old and busted token case (cracked along the top)

so I thought I would take some pics while constructing the new one in case anyone else wants to make their own, even though it’s really straightforward.

Yeah, so, it needs to be one of the kinds of chapstick where the “lid” is runs almost the entire length of the stick. Lobello and Nivea are the two that I know of, although there might be others. Take the stick out and you’ll notice a crack along the bottom. If you pull up, it should widen:

Pulllllll

Then it’ll be wide enough to wedge a fingernail, small crochet hook or exacto knife in and you can pry it the rest of the way off, leaving you with just the top part of the “lid”.

New lid hotness

And you’re basically done. Grab your secret stash of your kids’ craft paints and have at ‘er. Of course, you don’t have to decorate (it’ll probably just wear off anyway), but you might notice that the lid is a bit loose, which could result in it inadvertently falling off, spilling tokens inside your bag. So it might be worth running a brush along the rim of the lid with some paint or nail polish on just to make the fit a little tighter (or you can use Scotch tape cut to the appropriate width, which is what I did last time). Then, voilà! Tokens storage distinct from your other coinage for convenient retrieval:

Ford’s got two more years in office, which I figure is about four more fare hikes, so you might want to make more than one. Just sayin’.

A blog about knitting, biking, movies and books although I can’t keep up with new releases and I like to overthink things for a month or seven. I’m also finishing up my PhD but it’s taking a long time, so it’s probably best if we don’t talk about that. Currently living in Toronto.